core life skills

2. Dr. Shaikh Tahemina
Naaz
Assistant Professor
Marathwada College of Education,
Dr. Rafiq Zakaria Campus,
Aurangabad.

3. 1. Self-awareness
2. Empathy
3. Critical thinking
4. Creative thinking
5. Decision making
6. Problem Solving
7. Effective communication
8. Interpersonal relationship
9. Coping with stress
10. Coping with emotion

4. Self-awareness includes recognition of
‘self’, our character, our strengths and
weaknesses, desires and dislikes.
Developing self-awareness can help us
to recognize when we are stressed or
feel under pressure. It is often a
prerequisite to effective communication
and interpersonal relations, as well as
for developing empathy with others.

5. Empathy - To have a successful relationship with our
loved ones and society at large, we need to understand
and care about other peoples’ needs, desires and
feelings. Empathy is the ability to imagine what life is
like for another person. Without empathy, our
communication with others will amount to one-way
traffic. Worst, we will be acting and behaving
according to our self-interest and are bound to run into
problems. No man is an island, no woman either! We
grow up in relationships with many people – parents,
brothers and sisters, cousins, uncles and aunts,
classmates, friends and neighbours.

6. Critical thinking is an ability to analyze
information and experiences in an
objective manner. Critical thinking can
contribute to health by helping us to
recognize and assess the factors that
influence attitudes and behaviour, such
as values, peer pressure and the media.

7. Creative thinking is a novel way of
seeing or doing things that is
characteristic of four components –
fluency (generating new ideas),
flexibility (shifting perspective
easily), originality (conceiving of
something new), and elaboration
(building on other ideas).

8. Decision making helps us to deal
constructively with decisions about our
lives. This
can have consequences for health. It can
teach people how to actively make
decisions
about their actions in relation to healthy
assessment of different options and, what
effects these different decisions are likely
to have.

9. Problem solving helps us to deal
constructively with problems in our
lives. Significant problems that are
left unresolved can cause mental
stress and give rise to accompanying
physical strain.

10. Interpersonal relationship skills help us to
relate in positive ways with the people we
interact with. This may mean being able to
make and keep friendly relationships, which
can be of great importance to our mental and
social well-being. It may mean keeping, good
relations with family members, which are an
important source of social support. It may also
mean being able to end relationships
constructively.

11. Effective communication means that we
are able to express ourselves, both
verbally and non-verbally, in ways that
are appropriate to our cultures and
situations. This means being able to
express opinions and desires, and also
needs and fears. And it may mean being
able to ask for advice and help in a time
of need.

12. Coping with stress means recognizing
the sources of stress in our lives,
recognizing how this affects us, and
acting in ways that help us control our
levels of stress, by changing our
environment or lifestyle and learning
how to relax.

13. Coping with emotions means involving
recognizing emotions within us and
others, being aware of how emotions
influence behaviour and being able to
respond to emotions appropriately.
Intense emotions like anger or sadness
can have negative effects on our health
if we do not respond appropriately